Navigation systems are already known in the art. In general, map data, including road data acquired by digitizing each point on a road of a map, is stored in a storage device in advance, and a map data group in a predetermined range of area including the current position of the vehicle is read from the storage device while detecting the current position and heading direction of the vehicle using various sensors. Then, the map data group is displayed on a screen of the display device as a map of the area around the current position of the vehicle. A vehicle mark is automatically displayed on the map to indicate the current position and heading direction of the vehicle.
Conventional navigation devices have a function to automatically set the route to the destination. When a route is set, one route is selected out of a plurality of route candidates based on computation considering various conditions, such as the presence of a toll road and the shortest distance, on the routes between the start point, the destination and transit locations, and the selected route is displayed on the map.
However, when conventional navigation systems set the route, that route setting is done with almost no consideration of providing a pleasant drive to the riders, such as the driver. For example, even when the destination is a leisure venue, the route setting is done solely in terms of “movement,” and the navigation systems are not able to perform route setting in a way that enables the riders to enjoy scenery and the like while traveling to the leisure venue.